New Year, New Me

In November our family hit a rough patch and it has been an intense and immense journey the past few weeks. There had been a lot of soul searching, questioning, worrying, wondering, analyzing, medical concerns, spiritual concerns and more. In the course of that time I lost a significant amount of weight, wasn't eating much for several weeks, not sleeping well and feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders as I tried to support my little family finding its way through this time of crisis. Needless to say everything else quickly went by the wayside and we went into survival mode, big time.

Found this beautiful photo of my little family from about 10 years ago while going through a box last weekend. It has been the source of great peace and happiness to me to see the joy in them.

While all the problems and challenges have not faded, things have gotten better and I am a stronger, happier, better person for the journey. I received a blessing a few weeks ago wherein it said that I would look back on this time as a blessing. I can already say that is true in a very specific regard right now. I have grown and learned and changed myself and my relationship with God is vastly greater than it was a few short weeks ago.

I have had the opportunity to talk about my spiritual journey publicly a couple of times lately and with many friends privately. It has been a blessing to share what we are learning in life, our past experiences and grow together in life. I have learned so much from the dear people I love. I have also experienced the blessing of recognizing how many wonderful friends I do have and what they will do to help in a time of crisis.

Amazing people I have around me and if that isn't one of life's greatest gifts I don't know what is! Sometimes we go through hard things to see how loved and appreciated we are and to see the blessings of others' service -- and to allow them the blessings of selfless service. I cannot count the amazing kindnesses that have been extended to our family in the past few months. Purely amazing.

I find that during these times of growth are when I have the most profound experiences that I want to share here and discuss here with you. So I have a long list of new blog topics to cover in the next few weeks. Finally here at the beginning of February I feel that excited energy to charge into the new year and really take it on. Full of goals and excitement. Looking forward to engaging here with you more.

I am also very happy to look forward to the Winter Olympics beginning tonight. I have always loved the Olympics, especially the winter games, and find them so inspiring. Such a great way to get the excitement and energy up for taking on a new year. Can't wait to sit and watch every night we can with my family. A festive fun activity for winter nights.

 I am also headed out to Alt Summit at the end of this month and have been busy the past week getting plans in place. I registered last summer and it seemed like it was years away still. February 2018?! And then suddenly it was February 2018 and I had completely forgotten what month Alt was happening. So I got a hotel room, not at the host hotel unfortunately, but it's close.

I won't have a fabulous new wardrobe to take with me, I won't have a fancy new blog design to tout, or any great partnership with a big corporation to share. I still won't have 1 million readers or have had my home shared on an international design website. I'm just going to go as humble little me and hope that at best I get some new business cards designed and ordered to take with me. Keeping it simple only because that's all I can do right now.

I think it will still be a great experience and all those social/popularity things can't be worried about. I am looking forward to meeting some online friends I have been acquainted with for almost ten years now and never met in person. There are new friends who I will be having some deeply personal and amazing conversations with too - that's already planned.

I also have a Valentine's Day gift/project I am working on that desperately needs to get going. I'm running out to paint part of it right now so it has time to dry while it is warm. There are so many things I must do and so many fun things I want to do. That keeps life fun and exciting I think and I am feeling a lot of joy in life these days, even though it is far from perfect. It's my good life and I am so grateful for it.

Two Things That May Make Kids Feel Unloved

I've been thinking about this for a bit and more importantly looking at ways I can NOT be doing these two things that I believe make kids feel uncared for. The first is Busyness and the second is Tiredness. A big facet of both of these is stress.

These two words seem to be somewhat synonymous with parenting, but I think we have to be very careful that those words do not become more a part of our household than feelings of warmth, welcomeness, love, peace, caring and togetherness. We grown ups seem to get very carried away with talking about our tiredness and our busyness and I think that rubs off on kids which makes them more distant and gives them a sense that they should not bother us which the believe will only cause us to be more tired and more busy - and possibly more grumpy and more unpleasant to be around.

When kids feel their parents are too busy and too tired they are less likely to choose to talk to them about things they are struggling with, that make them sad or that even make them happy and excited. They are more likely to retreat to far spaces in the house to be away from the busyness and tiredness (aka STRESS) and get involved in activities that are not that beneficial to them like long hours of gaming, texting, etc. They are likely not cleaning their rooms, reading, eating healthy food, and being otherwise productive as they might with more parental involvement.

This is a bad cycle to get into! I wonder how often we are actually pushing our kids away and not realizing it. Another big parent distraction that likely all parents will admit to shamefully is time on what my husband calls "fidget devices" - phones and computers. There is likely no parent alive who hasn't let a child walk away feeling a little uncared for when preoccupied on the phone or computer. I know when I am working at the computer, even on worthwhile activities, I can lose track of time and kid and that is not a good thing.

I think for me the goal I have to keep this from being a problem in our home is to avoid busyness and the very appearance of it. I have to keep paring down and cutting back and getting rid of activities that are not my top priorities, even if I love to do them. I have to prioritize what is best for the family and for me -- a mix of those things, but I have to have a very few items that make that list.

Next is self care. I've written about that here many, many times. If I'm not well I can't do my best with other people or myself. That means taking time to unwind, taking care of eating well, getting exercise and doing things that feed our souls. This  year I have been sleeping much more than I have historically and it has been a big difference. I have gone from 4-6 hours of sleep a night to 8-10 hours many nights. The difference in my abilities and functionality is a little big frightening. My physical health has improved a great deal too and gosh darn it, it feels good to actually feel good!

Lastly I think I want to be very cautious about how we talk around our kiddo. I want to take "I'm so busy" and "I'm tired" out of our vocabulary and incorporate the feelings and words that say "I have time for you.", "How can I help  you today?" and "Can we spend some time together?" into our every day. I want to open up the opportunities and dialogues that build stronger relationships, especially as we head into the teen years.

So even if I do feel a little "stressed", "busy" or "tired", I'm not going to put that on my Kiddo. She needs to know I'm "available", "looking for hugs" and am full of love, time and energy for her.

Saying Goodbye To Stuff: Little Girl Clothes

We are focused completely on decluttering, organization and living a more minimal lifestyle right now. That means a lot of work and decisions on what to let go of, where to put things and finding a home for every belonging.

It's been a very delayed process, after our somewhat tumultuous first half of 2016, with broken foot and other things happening including winter weather, but we're finally going through stuff that we hastily packed when we left LA with just a couple of weeks notice in early 2015 and are getting our life back to a somewhat organized state.

It's been interesting to let go of things...stuff. One of the things I've been having a tough time letting go was all our beautiful little girl clothes. I think the sadness there is two-fold. One, we're letting go of our once little girl's clothes and learning to adapt to a pre-teen world of hormones, more independence and finding the place where effective parenting happens while allowing a young person to find herself, develop her life all the while still obviously needing parents to guide whether she's excited about that or not.

The second reason it's been hard is that we kept all our favorite little girl clothes hoping there would be another little girl who could wear those. That didn't happen and that is a heartbreaker. I was at a church function a few days ago and the word posterity came up and it just hit me a little bit that I would have no biological posterity in this life. I teared up. By no means do I overlook or am I ungrateful for the opportunity I've had to mother a child in my life. That has been a beautiful blessing, but when you realize you will never have your own biological children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren, and it's something you always wanted and expected you would have, that is sad.

We've joked in out family that the minute we give all those clothes away a little girl will somehow fall out of the sky into our family. If for some miracle we pull an Abraham and Sariah then the kid can have new clothes. She will have earned it.

I think one of the reasons it's been hard to give those kinds of things away is that we are giving away a big part of our history all at once. If I we had been giving stuff away little by little over the past few years it wouldn't sting as much because we wouldn't be looking at years of history. Now we're seeing The Bug's clothing she was wearing at three and four years old while in the same day doing laundry for a tall, gangly ten-and-a-half year-old girl who is all pre-teen smiles, hormones, grumpiness and horrifyingly embarrassed (at least half the time). It's a pretty stark contrast.

But I am trying to stay in a mindset that as we give away old things we're holding on to, whether they be belongings or just mental junk, that we open ourselves up to be filled up with new things we need. We make place in our lives for the present day and the future.

Last Saturday I took an entire (small) carload of things to the thrift store. It felt a little intense but I will say I have felt 99.9% relief (with only a smidgen of sadness) over having it all gone. That's a lot of space to open up for our lives. There had also been a good amount of stuff that has gone into the trash, and there will yet be further trips to the thrift store. But we're are definitely making progress which is so fantastic. I have to celebrate that progress every day. Every new empty box is a milestone and we've been emptying a lot of boxes the past few weeks. After merging two residences and a storage unit, we're doing pretty well.

So we keep chugging along and we're feeling encouraged. Last year at this time it had been about a month since we'd closed on our house and we were working like crazy. We had beautified the garage floor with the gray sprinkled epoxy protective coating, pulled out the giant planters in the kitchen and had the floors redone. We had removed the brick from the laundry room and put in new flooring there and the two downstairs bedrooms had been painted. Since then I don't think we've accomplished any big projects but now it's just getting everything in the house in it's place. In the future there will definitely be a lot of painting of the entire main floor - family room, living room, kitchen and dining room. We'll paint our master bedroom someday and the kitchen will definitely need some work. The tile countertops have a couple of spots that are losing grout with our daily use, so they'll need attention soon.

Oh, one quick note. Many of you have heard of the world famous Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta held here the first two weeks of October each year. We have a two bedroom, two bath townhouse vacation rental that is available, on a very last minute opportunity, for the entirety of the Balloon Fiesta as well as going forward. We'll be posting it on AirBnB but if you or anyone you know is interested let me know.

Thanks for coming by. I have a bunch of good posts in the works and look forward to sharing them soon.

Making Peace With Ended or Broken Friendships

I've had this post on my list of posts to write for a while and have thought a lot about this topic, and at times struggled with it. For a multitude of reasons friendships come to an end, people leave our lives or we leave theirs. I thought I'd just share some lessons and experiences I've had and my thoughts as I have mulled things over, wondered what happened, wondered what needed to happen and attempted to move forward.

Sometimes what were shiny star relationships in our lives extinguish quickly and sometimes they die a slow death over time. We've all been on both sides of the fence regarding ended friendships. When friends leave our lives we are usually left with unanswered questions. I have found that when friendships change or end it's always helpful to consider these things.

Instead of placing blame or feeling badly, it's helpful to try to remember that circumstances and needs change our lives and others. Sometimes things happen that we'll never know about that push our friends in directions we may never know about.

It can be hard to read the signs and understand what is happening. This can be frustrating and discouraging. I try to act in grace, giving them my best hopes and releasing them to do what they need to do for them. I try to take into account the lessons and blessing that have come to my life from the friendship. This helps me realize there are times and seasons for relationships and be grateful rather than upset.

I remember a lesson I learned from a broken relationships a few years ago that helped me not to fill in the blanks with negative things. After finding a great massage therapist who I met with for a few months, I experience a large increase in expenses that required that massages could not fit into my budget anymore. I did not say anything to my massage therapist and I was very busy with work so time passed more quickly than I realized. A few months later a friend and fellow client of this massage therapist told me a story that stunned me. Apparently the therapist had had a falling out with another friend of ours. So when she did not hear from me, she assumed that I had been drawn into the drama and refused to use her services anymore because of this row she'd had with another friend.

I actually had heard nothing of this falling out, but was really surprised at the connections the therapist had made, which made total sense from the bits and pieces of information she had to go on to explain why I was no longer seeking her services. This taught me a great lesson about not drawing conclusions from bit and pieces of information because chances are I will be wrong. I definitely don't wan to act from misconceptions or make incorrect assumptions about other people and what is going on around me.

I read a business book once that said that when there is a lack of information, people generally fill that void with negative and fearful beliefs. I have thought about that a lot and really tried not to do that in my life. But it is a challenge, especially when we feel hurt or rejected.

Sometimes our friendships drift apart very slowly over time due to life changes, like a move, marriage, having children, or even a personal or family crisis. Sometimes relationships end very abruptly. Those are hard. I can't recommend the best way to change or end a friendship or how to handle an ended friendship we weren't expecting. There isn't an easy way.

But making peace within oneself about it is always required one way or the the other. Sending best wishes and finding gratitude in the time that was had together and the blessings that came can bring some peace and prepare one to welcome new friendships into one's life, to enjoy a new season of friendships. Sending love and fond wishes to you as you traverse this ever interesting and adventurous trek known as friendships. The best blessings often come with some challenges. But we always take some great life lessons with us to guide us in the future.

*PS: This is a beautiful window I found at Sundance resort in Utah over Christmas. I have always wanted some of these stars and this totally inspired me. They are made by a relative of a friend of mine. You can find them here on Etsy.

The Gift Of Writing Your Personal History

A few weeks ago I was inspired to pull out my paternal grandmother's life history and began to read it with great interest. I have read it several times before but this time I can relate to it in a whole new way. I understand more clearly the reality of adulthood and can relate so much more to her life, work, joys and challenges.

I am so grateful that she wrote down her life story for us. I miss her a lot. She was one of the great examples and counselors of my life. How many times over the past 19 years have I wished I could have another talk with her. I have so many questions I would ask her at this age that I think she would have great wisdom in answering. When I think of the much deeper levels of conversation I could have with her now, I wish I'd been a bit of a deeper thinker when she was alive.

I appreciate so much more who she was, her talents, her courage, her fortitude and grit. She was a farmer's daughter and a farmer's wife. That had to be a challenging and busy life along with working outside the home often and caring for family and friends and serving in our church.

I am so happy to be able to go back and remember who she was and use her as a measuring stick to how I am doing. Could I be more grateful for all my blessings? Do I complain too much? Am I serving others enough? Am I taking care of myself as I should? Am I doing creative things that I enjoy. I see answers to all these questions in her example.

It was my grandmother that gave me my first journal at age eight and I have been a pretty faithful journal keeper since that age. I have many volumes of filled journals, particularly from the past ten to fifteen years. I have been thinking frequently over the past year that it is time for me to start working on writing my life story.

As I remember stories that I share with my husband or daughter that are meaningful to me, I am reminded that these things that come to mind should be written down in my history. For example earlier this week I was telling The Bug about when I played Red Riding Hood in a kindergarten play.

She asked who played the Big Bad Wolf. I have no idea, but I do know that the beautiful red wool hooded cape my mother so kindly sewed me is still at her house somewhere. I need to get that and preserve it. I need to write those things down. I wish I remembered who played the Big Bad Wolf.

I am getting excited to start that project. Maybe it will be part of my new year goals. I am also going back reading the history of my paternal grandfather's family since coming to America in the 1600s. Although I've read much of it, I had forgotten many details and some just weren't as meaningful to me in the past as they are now such as my ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war and left their extended families and migrated west.

It's amazing to see traits I have and that are important to me reflected in our family generations ago. It gives me a sense of connection and really tells me that there are virtues my family has long embraced that are just as important to me today as they were to my great-grandfather who was an Old West sheriff and my long-ago ancestor who fought with George Washington in the Revolutionary War.

As you think about gifts you can pass on to your family and generations to follow, consider writing your personal history. It is a priceless gift that no one can give but you. I could not be more grateful to have the treasure of my grandmother's personal history which she gave me as a young girl.

8 Tips To Prepare Your Family to Serve Others

Last week I wrote about ways we can help the poor and needy. Today I wanted to share some of what I've learned about successfully volunteering with kids.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance take The Bug to serve at the food pantry. I checked the first time, when I went by myself, to see if families could volunteer, what ages were appropriate and how their schedule worked.

Here are a few ideas for preparing the family for a positive experience volunteering.

1) Learn everything you need to know in advance. Do your research, talk to the staff at the location and go and serve once yourself so you can see how it will work for your family.

2) Talk to the kids in advance. Tell them what to expect. What they will be doing. Let them know how long you will be there. Will they be wearing a hairnet or apron? Will they need to be quiet in certain areas? Will there be a break? Snacks?

3) Teach the kids about appropriate safety behavior. Let them know about any physical dangers and where they will and won't be allowed. Give them any details you can about the situation they can expect there. At the food pantry children must stay with an adult and need to be very careful in the warehouse area.

4) Role play how to act in social situations they may be unfamiliar with. There may be situations that require some social graces and sensitivity when dealing with the elderly, poor or needy. Role play with the kids how they can best interact graciously. then they won't be nervous or embarrass those they are serving, you or themselves.

5) Teach them about the blessings of service. Find and share some success stories about people who have been helped at the charity you will visit. On most charity websites they have history and statistical information you could share. You can also share your own experiences if you have already visited.

6) As you serve highlight positive moments and good feelings you see your kids experience. Praise them for their good work and share with them how it is appreciated and helping the organization succeed.

7) Have a post mortem meeting. When you complete your service let family members share their experiences, build on the positives and talk about negatives. What did members enjoy, what could you do differently next time to increase the positive aspects of the experience.

8) Plan your next service opportunity. During the post mortem, while the experience if fresh in everyone's minds, schedule the time for your next service opportunity. You may choose to try a different activity or revisit the same organization again.

Teaching kids generosity and service are opportunities for some amazing life lessons.  These are experiences and lessons they will carry with them throughout life. Here's a link to another helpful article full of ideas for how you can do service with your family - 10 Ways To Teach Your Kids To Serve Others.

How have you helped your family learn through service? Any tips you can share?

Image via Deseret News

Caring For The Poor & Needy

I have heard two inspiring talks recently about helping the poor and needy. It's actually been on my mind for a few months now. I've been wanting to find practical ways that my family can help the poor and needy.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed when one tries to consider how they can affect the tide of poverty in the world. What can one person do in the face of millions suffering?

That has been on my mind quite a bit. Our last name is not Gates or Zuckerberg. We don't have $25 mil to give to our favorite charities. But we can do something. Here are a few things we can do or are doing.

1) Donate the costs of one day's meals each month to our church to feed others.

2) Pay tithing. Donate 1/10 of our income to our church for charitable purposes.

3) Help out at the food pantry. Go & work there for a few hours each month.

4) Donate used goods to true charity thrift stores. 

5) Make things to donate to charity. (winter hats, toiletries kits, etc.)

6) Gather items for the needy from friends & family. A great holiday activity.

7) Keep a coin jar that gets donated when it's full.

8) Recycle soda cans and plastic bottles then donate the refund.

9) Volunteer during the holiday season to provide gifts for a needy family.

10) Have a yard sale and donate the proceeds to charity.

These are all fairly simple things that almost anyone can do to have an impact on the life of someone in need. I've been trying to work in service to others into our schedule every week. It's been a great experience to go to the food pantry and help sweet people fill their food orders. I was really happy to get to take The Bug with me last week. Great place to learn lessons of gratitude for all our blessings.

I'd love to add more ideas to this list. Add your ideas in the comments below.

Fun Gifts In The Mail: Smash Books

After a wonderful visit from my sisters last week, one sister sent some fun presents that appeared on our doorstep the day after she left. Have to love Amazon Prime and it's magical way of dropping things on your doorstep mere hours after one orders them.

My sister had told us about Smash Books while she was here and she was so sweet to send a couple to The Bug and I. They are spiral, hardbound scrapbooks where you can gather things you love, little memories and treasures.

To make gathering and saving your paper treasures even easier, each book comes with a pen that has ink on one side and a glue stick on the other end. How smart is that? These books are so beautiful. I love the covers, the colors and the sassy concept.

These are from K & Company who already produce some of the best scrapbooking papers and supplies out there. You can add all sort of fun stickers, tapes and other K & Company accessories to your book. I'm interested in the striped rubber bands I've seen that you can put on the open edge of your book to hold everything together.

There are all kinds of fun printed pages and little envelopes for tucking in bits of tickets and other tiny paper keepsakes. On the Smash Books website you can view this fun video for inspiration and ideas. 

There are so many fun examples of Smash Books online too. Here's a link. After looking at so many creative themes and ideas for these books I'm thinking hard about what I want to dedicate mine to. Too many ideas at the moment. I may need a few more Smash Books.

Thanks dear sister for the fun surprises. I noticed this morning that The Bug has already written her name in her book. I can't wait to see what treasures she stashes or should I say smashes in her book. She already has a few fun treasure books she holds dear to her heart. I know she's going to have fun with this one.

I'd say this is a great idea for Christmas, birthday, graduations gifts or for those days when you just want to say "I'm thinking of you!" Can't wait to make something beautiful with mine.

all images by kalanicut

What Makes A "Go-To" Friend

I have been thinking a lot lately about the friends I go to in an emergency. I am really bad about asking for help and will go to extreme measures sometimes not to have to ask people to simply help me out. I am trying to learn not to do this, but it's a work in progress. Life has a sneaky way of forcing us to learn lessons we don't immediately grab onto when offered. In my case, life has forced me into situations where I have had to ask for help.

I think about these angels of ours often, the friends I know I can turn to in a crisis. I want to be such a friend too so I have been contemplating what it is about these friends that make them "Go-To" friends. Here are a few things that I think make them the people I know I can turn to and trust when things go south and our family needs emergency help.

1) Go-To friends always make sure you know they are there for you. Our Go-To friends regularly offer their aid. Their continual reminders that they are there for us give me peace that they are really willing to help if they can. The more they remind me the safer I feel asking.

2) Go-To friends speak from their heart. One of our dear church associates gave me a big hug one day while The Man was away on a work trip and said, "I am here anytime if you need me. You just call me. That's ME talking, not the Church." That brought me to tears that he wanted me to know that he wanted to help not just because the church had asked him to watch over our family but because he deeply cared. I would call that guy in an emergency.

3) Go-To friends don't always wait to be told what you need. I had the most lovely experience when sick of watching a friend and neighbor come into our home and do some amazing things while I was lying in bed. Even though I felt awful and was half passed out, I could hear her and see her buzzing around doing exactly what was needed without me having to ask. That was a great blessing. I learned to trust her on a new and deeper level that day. I would not have had this experience if I had not accepted her willing help.

4) Go-To friends check in on you. Several of my Go-To friends will just send an email or text and ask how I and my family are doing and if there is anything they can do to help. They offer opportunities to go for yogurt or for a walk. Some send cards and little gifts in the mail like a bookmark or a little wooden heart. They let you know they are thinking about you and that you matter.

5) Go-To friends ask if they can or just straight out tell you they are going to pray for you. Some ask what they can pray for, others just let you know what they want to talk to God about on your behalf. It does strengthen me to know that others speak to God on our behalf. You can never have too many prayers going skyward.

6) Go-To friends share their experience to encourage you on. It's amazing to me how learning about other's learning experiences helps me in my life. If we were all too embarrassed or private to share our personal journeys we sure would be missing out. Frequently I am reminded of inspiring things friends have shared with me that remind me that I can do what I have to do and that I am not alone.

I think these are terrific characteristics and I really want to be more of these things! I am so grateful for our Go-To friends. They mean the world to me. I know that The Man has a deep gratitude for these people who have watched out for us when he has been away, especially in times of trouble.We carry these angels very close in our hearts.

I tell God how thankful I am for our earthly angels and ask him to bless them and to help them feel the depth of our gratitude. (Not that we don't tell them that ourselves, but I think God has special ways of doing this too.) I would love to hear about your Go-To friends and what traits you see in them that you admire. Leave a note in the comments if you like. I hope you have a great day. Thanks so much for coming by!

PS: Had to add another quality that I think is absolutely essential: LOYALTY. That means not sharing details or opinions about you, your life, your emergency or the state of your private life with anyone. That is critical in a Go-To friend. If a person can't do this, they can't be a friend, let alone a Go-To friend.

Great Gifts For Under $10 Dollars: Week Six

It's week six of Great Gifts For Under $10 and let's jump right on in. This week is full of color and a lot of sentimentality for me.

1) Martha Stewart Tissue Case: Tissues in a woman's purse holds a lot of sentimentality for me. I have my tissue friends, the ones you can depend on to pass you a tissue from their purse when life gets a little teary. I love the ladies at church who in seconds can whip out a tissue and hand it over to someone in need. I remember a woman in my life having a little handmade embroidered tissue case in her purse when I was a little girl. I have a pretty little fabric tissue case in my purse and I have stacks of little purse-size tissue packs in my bathroom cupboards. I don't try to keep a stack but when I see them I throw a pack into my shopping cart and then find more when I get home in the cupboards. So I am never without.

I think every woman's purse can be blessed with a pretty case always ready with a soft facial tissue ready to be passed along to a friend, loved one or even a stranger when tears of joy or tears of sadness flow. These are super easy to make, here's the link.

2) Photo Shadow Box: It's easy to pick up small shadow boxes at places like IKEA. With a little scrapbook paper or fabric you can create a beautiful background to frame one or more black and white photos of your loved ones. Add a few shells or other little details in the bottom of the box and you have a special keepsake. Very inexpensive to make for a very sweet treasure. I made this a couple of years ago and it is still one of our most treasured possessions.

3) E-reader/Tablet Case: I whipped a bunch of these up a while back. They are easy to make with two-sided quilted fabric. They don't take much time, can be easily personalized and they do a great work protecting the electronics.

4) Citrus: I remember when I was a little girl that every once in a while we would get a box of oranges from someone at the holidays. In the middle of the cold, harsh winter, seeing a whole box of bright orange fruit was beyond delicious and refreshing not only to the palate but to the soul too. A pretty bag or box of lemons, oranges, limes, grapefruits or clementines brings so much cheer and deliciousness at the holidays. You can package them up in all sorts of absolutely charming ways and with a pretty tag, citrus is a gift of the sun's own rays at holiday time.

See the entire series here:

Week One
Week Two
Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

image 1: martha stewart
image 4: mca

Great Gifts For Under $10: Week Five

It's Week Five of Great Gifts For Under $10. Today is a bit of a random selection but all easily doable for much under ten dollars. Three of these you can easily make for less than $5.

1) Driftwood Garland: These babies sell for quite a lot of money in catalogs and home decor shops. They are free to make if you have a location where you can get a lot of free driftwood. I have made a couple of these for only the cost of the twine to thread the garlands on. That's a few pennies really.

2) Burt's Bees Hand Salve: During the dry winter season this stuff is a godsend! I found it online for $7-9. Even living near the ocean I find that my skin has really been drying up lately. My cuticles need constant attention. Burt's Bees time. With a soothing scent and nice texture this is a great salve for dry skin. A great gift anyone will enjoy.

3) Handmade Paper Butterflies: These are so gorgeous for a mobile, to hang in front of a large window or near a bedroom wall. I think these are prettiest when you choose magazine pages with really bold contrasts to them. They are really easy, so pretty and cost nothing but string and old magazine pages you probably already have on hand. If you want to make a mobile, add the cost of a small dowel.

4) Wire Wrapped Necklace: With a few collected free treasures this necklace can be made for just a few dollars. All you need is jewelry wire and leather or cord or chain. This is a piece of sea glass I picked up on an East Coast beach.

So there are four more great ideas for your holiday giving this year. I think all total for the series we should be at about 15-17 gift ideas now. Hope you are finding inspiration that is just right for your needs this year. Some years it's all about making fun things and some years it's about finding great things you can easily give without a lot of extra work. Hopefully I'm giving you a mix of both. Hope your holiday preparations are going well and you are having time to take in the sights and sounds of the season too. Happy day!

See all the series here:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three

Week Four

Images 1, 3, 4 by kalanicut

Image 2 via Burt's Bees

Gift Wrap Class 5: Repurpose And Reuse

Welcome to Gift Wrap class five. Today is all about using what you have and finding new ways to use things again. Here are a few ways I reuse and reduce waste when it comes to gift wrap materials.

1) I am a big fan of using real fabric ribbon for gifts and I will save all sorts of little bits or ribbons and twines to reuse. When I give a gift with ribbon on it, I love to see someone fold it up to reuse it. When I see someone throw away perfectly lovely ribbon, I feel like I will break out in hives. Why would you throw away something so beautiful that still has perfectly good use to it? Beats me. There is always some fun way to reuse a bit of ribbon.

2) I often make wrapping paper out of pretty shop bags. It's easy to cut out the store label/logo and use beautifully stripped or patterned paper to wrap small boxes. You can get all the creases and wrinkles out by ironing plain paper on the lowest iron setting. Don't try to iron paper that has any sort of meltable material on it, such as flocking, embossing, etc. It will make a royal mess on your iron and ruin the paper.

3) Make your own gift bag by recycling store bags. All this bag needed was a pretty piece of scrapbook paper glued over the logo printing on the bag and some holiday washi tape around the edges. I glued down the washi tape because it just didn't really want to stick to such a stiff background. With a little handmade tag on top, this was an easy gift wrap job. I cover one, two or four sides of the bag with strips of pretty paper to cover up the logos as needed and give a high quality bag another life.

4) This should be a no brainer, but boxes from retail stores can easily be folded down flat and used year after year if they are well cared for and in good shape. I keep lots of small boxes in a drawer and then a supply of larger ones folded up with my bag of gift wrapping. You can spice up the box with simple, flat decoration if it needs a little help before you wrap it.

The key to reusing and recycling is all about being tactful and situationally aware. Some settings aren't quite right for recycling or reusing things and some are. You just have to know the situation and of course put something beautiful together. There are so many ways to save some money, give something a second life, and make something fabulous with things you already have on hand. Once one gets in the mindset you start seeing ways you can make something out of even tiniest scraps -- hello gift tags!

So what do you do to creatively reuse gift wrapping supplies? If you have a favorite trick I'd love to hear about it! Happy gift wrapping! It's officially the holiday season.

Great Gifts Under $10: Week Four

It's Monday again already and time for Great Gifts Under $10: Week Four. We're taking a family day today and going on a big adventure today to one of the local amusement parks. We're going to one that none of us has ever been to, so it should fun. Then tonight we are going to a pirate show dinner. I'm imaging we are going to be some VERY tired people by the end of the night. This should be a very adventuresome day!

While we are off riding rides and enjoying amusement park delicacies I'll leave you with three projects that are some of my favorite projects I collected to try this holiday season.

Wax-resist Technique Scarves: These pretty scarves were created by Elsie at A Beautiful Mess. I would like to make these in long, oblong scarves that would wrap around the neck a couple of times. I am also thinking about making gauze swaddle blankets for gifts with this same technique. I love that you could use any words or patterns on these.

Waterless Snow Globes: So gorgeous. These would be so fun to make with a variety of little creatures and trees and snowflakes. I like the idea of a collection of these together. These would easily store from year after year.

Beachy Love Sign: Tracy at Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures created this darling photo sign. She used a Cricut, but you could easily do this with an Exacto knife too. It would be easy to take any photo and any word and make something really special with this technique. It would be fun to use a family photo and cut it in the letters of the family's last name. This could be personalized for birthday gifts, weddings or just about any event. Sweet and simple idea for a Christmas gift. 

So those are my fun gifts under $10 for this week. If you try any, let me know. I'd love to hear how it goes for you. I might try all of these this year. I am still really rummaging through a lot of ideas in my head for gifts this year. But I hope to get things done and in the mail soon. Still have no idea what we're doing for a holiday card this year. I usually am already working on that. Zoinks. Sending you best wishes for a very lovely day!

See all the series here:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three

image one via A Beautiful Mess
image two via HGTV
image three via Tracy's Trinket and Treasures

Great Gifts For Under $10: Week Three

My sister has been going gangbusters trying out all sort of all natural, homemade recipes for body products. I thought for today's Great Gifts Under $10 I would share some recipes for great gifts you can make for the body. There is some investment that is going to be more than $10 total for the ingredients, but each gift should average out in cost to be well under $10 each.

In Week One I shared the very simple Eye Cream recipe. Here are a three more that would make lovely gifts. Not only can these be lovingly homemade they are also good for the body. The ingredients lists in so many body care products are filled with things that are harmful for the body but are cheap to use. Don't we all want our people taking better care of themselves and their bodies.

DoTerra Moisturizing Lotion Bars. My sister raves about these. You can use any brand of essential oils but I do hear great things about DoTerra brand. It's a great time of year for some extra TLC for the skin.

Wellness Mama's Homemade Deoderant Bar. The ingredients in most commercially produced deoderants terrify me for good reason. I love all the better options there are out there and this is one you can make. Wellness Mama has a ton of great recipes for products you can make at home.

Mountain Rose Herbs Homemade Lip Balm. Lip balm is very easy to make. Like any of these homemade products, a pretty jar and a homemade or even hand drawn sticker label make a perfect gift.

Here are a couple of quick packaging helps. For containers check out camping stores. They often have great little jars and bottles you can use for homemade products. You can also recycle small jars if you collect them as you go along. To make cute labels for your creations try using PicMonkey in the labels section. Here's a tutorial from BlissfulRoots.com. Then you can easily make real stickers with a Xyron sticker maker. They come in lots of different sizes and price points starting at about nine dollars. Great gifts, here you come!

Hope you enjoy trying out one or some of these Great Gifts Under $10 this holiday season. If you do, please let me know. I would love to hear from you.

See The Entire Weekly Series here:
Week One
Week Two
Week Four
Images via DoTerra.com, WellnessMama.com and MountainRoseHerbs.com

Great Gifts Under $10: Week Two

It's week two of my new series for the holidays called Great Gifts For Under $10. I have so many to share that I can't wait for another Monday to roll around. I'll also be back later this morning to post a tribute to our veterans, including one handsome one who I share a home with.

This week for great gifts I'm sharing four projects, two of my own and two from other bloggers. I'll start top left and work my way around.

1. Refurbished Wood Bowl. Here's a link to how I created a gorgeous wood bowl from a hunk of thrift store junk, inspired by the gorgeous and not inexpensive natural wood bowls at ABC Home in NYC. I also did a tray you can see here. You can buy old varnished wood bowls from thrift stores for a couple of bucks. Then all you need is sandpaper and food grade wood oil or beeswax. Absolutely gorgeous results.

2. Birch Bulletin Board. Little did I know when I first posted about this project from Ever Kelly, that Kelly would become one of my dearest friends. This is such a pretty project and would be great to brighten up a workspace or kitchen! Kelly gives a great tutorial. Image by Kelly Lee-Creel.

3.Stackable Bracelets. These are so easy to make and you can make them in all sorts of styles, colors and varieties. This is a easy gift to crank out in multiples and you can really personalize each set for the person you gift to.You could even make a few and mix and match them with inexpensive store bought bracelets. There are a bajillion DIY tutorials for bracelet projects on Pinterest and YouTube.

4. Handpainted Dish Towels: These are by the very talented Jenny Steffens Hobick of Everyday Occasions. You can find all the instructions at the link. There are so many pretty things you can do with this project. This is another project you can really personalize for each recipient. Image via Everyday Occasions.

That's seven easy DIY gifts for under ten bucks I've shared in the past two weeks. Hope you are finding inspiration for things you can make this year. It's not about the amount you spend, it's about how well you give. Looking forward to trying out some of these myself. I am thinking a lot about fabric paint, stencils and silk-screening this year.

See The Entire Series Here:
Week One
Week Three
Week Four

Etsy Valentines For My Fun, Quirky Family

images via Etsy

Every holiday season I love to visit Etsy to see all the amazing creativity that flows there. Needless to say my socks were charmed off by all the many unique gifts I found that would be so perfect for all my favorite Valentines. Hare are four that are just perfect for my little family and I had to share them with some serious enthusiasm.

1) Felted Wool Valentine's Sheep -- I have a thing for small animal sculptures, particularly made of fabric or wood. Felted wool sheep, I mean seriously, how cute are these.  I love how they are posed in the photo. They are actually called Shades of Gray sheep but that just totally tarnishes the whole cuteness to me, so I can't think about that. (Big smile.) But I do love them. They are made by Lisa, of Bondurant Mountain Art in Harrisburg, Virginia.

2) Romantic Art Block -- The Man and I have had this exact conversation too many times to count. Sweet to have a little desk side reminder. These are made by John Golden, Wilmington, North Carolina.

3) Narwhal -- Okay this would be the one gift I would go insane for. The message is customizable, although the deadline for a V-day delivery is passed. But this certainly could be adapted to anything and everything. Just today The Bug and I were reading about Narwhals in a book and then acted out the Narwhal scene from the movie Elf.

Narwhal: Bye Buddy. Hope you find your dad.

Buddy: Thanks Mr. Narwhal.

So Mr. Love Narwhal here couldn't be more up my alley right now and I think I'm going to own one in the very near future. Wish I could get him super sized. Darling love Narwhal is made by Armadillo Dreams, Dustin and Amanda Cowell, Redmond, Oregon.

4) Customizable Leather Bracelet -- Again I love that you can put anything here you want. Coordinates to home, secret code love messages or whatever quirky love sayings you have in your family. I'm a big sucker for dark brown leather and gray or silver metal together. Would love seeing this wrapped around The Man's wrist while I was holding his hand which I sorely miss doing. Dakota Designs is the shop that sells these bracelets, owned by Summer McDowell, Kansas City, Missouri.

I'm hoping to have a chance to post a few more Etsy features before Valentine's Day. Here are links to past posts I've done on all the beautiful February 14 inspirations on Etsy.

Valentine's Day 2011

Best of Etsy Valentine's Day 2012, part one

Best of Etsy Valentine's Day 2012, part two

A Cute Lesson In Self-reliance

image via

Thought I'd share a cute story that happened yesterday. It's all about the "building blocks" of teaching kids self-reliance. This opportunity to teach totally just fell in my lap, all I had to do was go with it.

The Bug has been playing with her small Lego kit quite regularly for a couple of weeks and I realized that she would probably enjoy adding more blocks so she could more easily make things. I thought that perhaps as a reward for doing such a great job with her first week of school I would take her out and buy her a new box of Legos this weekend.

At Christmas time The Man's very kind and generous dad gave The Bug and me Amazon gift cards. I've been thinking about what we would use them for. Yesterday after school it hit me that this would be the perfect thing to use her gift card on.

So she and I snuggled up and started shopping online for new Legos. She deliberated quite thoroughly on her options, changed her mind a few times and finally settled on a large box, two horses and a dog and cat set. When we got to the check out process I explained to her that we would be spending five dollars more than her gift card amount, but that I would gladly pay that for her.

Then she piped up, "Hey, how about I pay for it with my money?" I almost said no. When I looked at her excited face I saw the moment for a confidence building and learning opportunity. So I said, "That's a great idea. We have to use a card to pay online. But you can give me five dollars in cash and I will then put that money in my bank account and we can use my card to pay. " She ran to her room, got her money that she had was all organized and clipped together with her Dad last week and brought it out, unclipped it and counted out five dollars.

She arranged it nicely on the table them took the rest of her money back to her room. Then we sat down at the computer and made the purchase. She was so proud of herself it just touched my heart. We also wrote a very nice thank you email to Grandpa to thank him for his kind gift. Later as we ran a couple of errands she talked about how I should buy myself something because she had bought herself something really great. 

I was so glad I caught myself and didn't just take the fast and easy way out. It made the entire experience so much more joyful to watch her excitement. Plus I think she will value those Legos a lot more when she remembers that they came from Grandpa and that this was the first big thing she helped pay for. You just never know when  a nice moment will show up in your day.

Tragedy Reminds Us To Love More

image via

As I have thought about this tragedy in Connecticut, I have been so inspired and pleased to see the great outpouring of love, desire to support and love each other that has come from this tragedy. I am so pleased to see the rise of the human spirit to survive, to love and protect one another. What a great gift in tragedy. I am so impressed with the people of Newtown, Connecticut and the world at large for turning this into a time of support and love.

As I hope this love continues to increase throughout Newtown, Connecticut, my country and the world I must think about my role and each of our roles in making this happen. What can we each do to bring greater light to the world. I found myself wanting to be more friendly, more positive, more loving to everyone around me. It was easier to say kind and loving words without shyness, intimidation or embarrassment. I wanted to share more smiles, be more mindful to help strangers and friends around me.

On Friday I was at one of the Navy bases in San Diego. As I was walking up to the doors to one of the very busy buildings, a very handsome, sharply dressed young man in uniform took a moment to step aside hold the door for me with a smile. It instantly put a smile on my face and I felt a moment of deep gratitude that there are young men like this in the world. I thought of the parents and influencers (teachers, neighbors, relatives, friends' parents) who raised this young man to be so aware of others and be so kind. I am grateful for the teachings and examples of these fine people.

As I strive to help my spirit rise above tragedies such as this one, I pray that I and all of us will be more aware and loving to each other, that we will pray for and wish each other well, help each other, serve each other and do all we can to bring more light to the world through our own actions, thoughts and desires.

I hope you will join me in smiling more, being more thoughtful and kind and bringing more light into the world in your home, your neighborhood, city and from there the world. There are many troubled hearts that can be soothed and even healed with our kindness and other's inspired to carry on that spirit. Sending you my smile, my best wishes, my hopes and faith in brighter days.

What They Really Want For Christmas

image via

The holidays are officially here. I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you a few secrets about what your family really wants for Christmas. Deep down you already know these things, but it might be a good time for a little reminder.

Here's a list of things your family wants for Christmas.

1) They want you happy rather than stressed out.

2) They want you well rested rather than crabby and short tempered.
3) They want you to spend time with them rather than trying to impress friends & neighbors with extravagant decorations and gift wrap.
4) They want experiences with you rather than stuff they'll soon forget about.
5) They want to make memories with you, rather than seeing you overdo it.
6) They want you to sit with them and laugh at silly things, rather than rush around.
7) They want you watch silly holiday specials with them, rather than throwing or attending fancy parties.
8) They want to serve others with you and make someone else's holiday brighter.
9) They want to see the family financially stable, rather than stressed and in debt after the holidays.
10) They want you to enjoy and appreciate what they give you, rather than fussing about what you are giving them.
11)They want your attention on them, rather than on a list, a detailed timeline, late night DIY projects or anything else that takes you away from them.

Your family wants your best, happiest you. And long after stockings are emptied, treats are eaten and toys have broken, the thing they will remember best about their holidays is how they felt with you, how close and connected they felt with you. The best decorations are your smile, the best sounds of the holidays are your laugh and kind words and the best gifts are your love and time. None of these things costs a dime. But they do require diligence and attention. Happy holidays. Hope you make many rich and beautiful memories with your family this year.

Thankful November 2012: Day 6

image via mca

Oh, isn't it wonderful to take a few minutes every day to think about thanks. Today I want to thank Holly Becker, blogger, author and teacher of the Blogging Your Way Boot Camp I am involved in right now. While the spirit of the class is to learn how to be better bloggers and improve our experience in social networking, great goals, Holly's inspiration extends far beyond that. I have learned a lot about how to improve my efforts online, but what I most appreciate that I am taking from the class this time is a lesson from Holly's life philosophy that I want to incorporate into my life more passionately.

Holly's perspective may not be exactly this but this is what I am taking from it. In everything we do in life, we will have successes and failures. We must work hard. In our successes we ought to be gracious and grateful. In our struggles we all have the right and deserve to take a few minutes to be sad, to cry, to feel sorry for ourselves a bit. But not for too long. Then it's time to get up, dust yourself off and charge forward yet again.

We so often get stuck, stop our journey or detour off our paths when things get difficult. I am grateful for Holly's example, her drive and her willingness to share that spirit with others. This is my day, my moment to charge forward and I am so appreciative of Holly and all the others who have appeared in my life and encouraged me to make things happen and have faith in the inspiration that has lead me to this point. Thanks Holly!